Ophcrack, password cracking for good or evil
First, I am going to state this for the record. I do not in any way shape or form condone or suggest that people use this tool to hack, crack, or break into other people’s computers without their permission. It’s illegal and wrong. Period.
Now, that said this is a tool every Windows geek should have in their toolkit. Huh? Didn’t you just say it was wrong? Yes, wrong if you do it without someone’s permission. I have one. I’ve had a password cracking (actually password resetting) tool for a few years now. Here’s why. People are stupid. The story goes like this. The daughter of a friend forgot the admin password on her laptop. Yeah, she had it in total lock-down mode. So, beyond a non-admin user account, she was locked out and hosed. Most folks will tell you (because it’s easy), you’re screwed, just reformat and start over. Okay, this isn’t what people want to hear. They have documents, stuff, everything, on that machine and telling them that they are going to lose it all is just not something people like to hear. So I did a search for hacking tools (this is also how I picked up some nasty spyware … crossing onto the Dark Side of the Net will do that). I found a Linux boot CD that had a little utility that let you blank out the admin password so you could get in. Worked awesome. Heck I’ve had to use it on some of my own machines (I’ve never said I don’t sometimes fall under the "people are stupid" maxim).
I found via the VoIP and Gadgets blog, Ophcrack. It looks like something I’m going to download, just to have around. Tom has this to say about Ophcrack:
Honestly… Ophcrack is creepy. It cracked my (somewhat mediocre) 13-character alphanumeric password in about 5 minutes. Like most powerful tools, Ophcrack can be used for the forces of both good and evil, but for anyone who’s been locked out of their Windows user account because you can’t remember your password, Ophcrack can be very good. It may also encourage you to beef up the security of your user account password - that’s what it did for me.
So, I’ll have Opcrack to try to crack the password and my CD (labeled "Don’t ask, don’t tell") as backup. Remember, this is a powerful tool and with great power comes great responsibility. Use it wisely.
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